cell phone contracts..what uses up all the data??

[Hfan]

I have 4 phones on my Verizon plan..2 for my kids and one each for my wife and I. This month for example, I used 250K of data..browsing guitar forums, texting etc.. One kid (he's paying the overage this month..I'll learn him) used 6.2Meg, the other 2.8 meg, my wife 1.5meg. So I assume it is videos, pictures on social media etc that is using it all up? Verizon (arghh) only gives 10meg. Of course they would be happy to take more $ for more data but I feel like it's highway robbery already..and they seem to have the best network around here.

Reading this I'm not sure if I'm asking for advice or venting oh well.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

10mb? That's about 100 emails or something. Nothing at all. Unless I have completely got the wrong end of the stick...?

[mathman]

10gb

I have the same Verizon plan. My son uses it the most. YouTube!

[scottcald]

Yeah, vids and pics will chew it up. They should be using wifi when they're at home or at friend's homes etc. but sounds like they're just using the Verizon connection all the time. If they're on your plan, the carrier should be able to give you a breakdown of what the data is.

[veatch]

Yup. Videos chews it up. This includes video ads for the games.

If you have Verizon, they have a number of online tools you can use to alert you when any phone in the plan has gone over. I have the kids' phones set to a hard stop when they've used their budget. They have to keep track of it themselves to pace themselves to get through the month. If they go over, though, it's no mercy: the data is simply disabled.

[mathman]

You have to pay for those extra features, right?

[veatch]

Nope - part of the family plan.

ETA - you just need to turn them on. At least that was how it worked when I did it about a year ago.

[Boomerang~Junkie]

Videos and mixed-media are big users.

Also any app that frequently hits on or uses your location service is one. One would be weather apps set to refresh every five minutes. They also eat your battery up.

[scottcald]

Yeah, and kids will just click OK when installing an app if it asks about using any of that stuff.

[mathman]

To get the ability to control data I have pay 4.99 a month for the Family base controls. Is that what you use?

[veatch]

Ah - you are correct, sir. Mrs Veatch pays the cell bill, so i forgot that was extra. I just keep my thumb on the usage....

So, yes, $4.99 per month for family base controls.

[a.bandini]

$60 bucks for a year to teach your kids how to live within a budget sounds like a good investment to me.

[Teh]

Experience from my three offspring and cell bills:

- Internet radio (Spotify, I Heart Radio, Pandora)

- Social Media (Snapchat & Instagram both photo based)

- Cloud based music libraries

- Messaging (If kids have iPhone, the Messaging is data based - not SMS/Text based)

Go through the phone settings to minimize network access, location services and system updates without being on wi-fi. That will help.

[Toadroller]

Being the cheap bastard frugal person that I am, we started the kids and Mrs. Toadroller off with basic flip-style voice and text only phones from TracPhone. We set them up for a year/1000 minutes (whichever comes first), which has proven to be reasonable enough over the last few years. Pretty cheap, too. Like $160.

About three months ago we upgraded the phones to android based smart-phones and made clear the kids understood the difference between minutes of service and using wi-fi for everything else. Nice phones, btw. Maybe not quite the panache of the latest and greatest, but surprisingly nice.

The beauty here is that the minutes are what the minutes are; when they run out, they run out. If they run out quickly, the little Toadrollers can learn the lesson the hard way and pay for the next batch of minutes. I figure roughly $500 a year for three phones in service is better than $150++ a month.

[Hfan]

Thanks guys, good info.

Wasn't aware of the hard stop option..as mentioned could be a good learning tool. I have been monitoring the usage monthly on the individual phones etc. This month I owed my son $20 after some Christmas gift exchanging/ bargaining (that he can monitor very well ha ha). The $15 overage charge is coming out of that $20.

Between cable bills and cell phone bills no wonder the middle class is shrinking. Expensive addictions.

Thanks again.

[Studio Custom]

Porn

/thread

[Hfan]

Porn

/thread

Ha the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..